"US Classified Information Leak Suspect, Deeply Interested in Military During School Days"

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

Jack Teixeira (21), who caused a global uproar by leaking classified U.S. documents, was described by his schoolmates as an "odd kid" interested in guns, military, and war, according to local media including CNN on the 15th (local time).

According to reports, Jack Teixeira grew up in the suburbs of Providence, Rhode Island, and graduated in 2020 from Dayton-Rehoboth High School in neighboring Massachusetts. John Powell, a high school classmate, said, "I never expected him to do something like that."

Classmates said he carried books about firearms and thick encyclopedias related to tanks, airplanes, and submarines during his school days. They also testified that after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, he appeared at school wearing a shirt emblazoned with an AR-15 rifle and made remarks that could be perceived as racist.

Brook Cleartero, a middle and high school classmate, told CNN, "Many people were wary of him," and another peer explained that while he was not someone people felt they needed to report, "he made me nervous."

Teixeira, who enlisted in the military in 2019, found like-minded people on the gaming chat platform Discord. In the Discord chat room "Thug Shaker Central," where Teixeira is known to have leaked classified information, conversations reportedly included not only preferences for certain guns but also racist and anti-Semitic remarks.

The motive for the crime has not yet been revealed, but members of the Discord chat room point to his desire for attention as the cause. One member said, "He was just a weirdo who wanted to browse through things, compare and contrast, and make jokes about them. We were just trying to have fun."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.